A girl in the free weights?!

[Katy47]

After half-assing the gym for about 2 years, 6 months ago I decided to just get over myself and the fear of free weights/not knowing what to do/gym bros. So I started off with the Stronglifts workout plan (at about 10kg for each lift/20kg for deads), and got some pretty good results sticking to the plan consistently.

This started to get boring, so recently I switched a Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower plan I found a link to somewhere on these forums. However, I'm finding the longer workouts and extra day a week a bit challenging to stick to, so I thought I'd make a journal thread for some accountability and possibly advice if any of you had any to throw at me.

I'm still nearly always the only girl in the gym, and I still find it pretty intimidating putting tiny plates on my bar when there's massive guys around me with like 6 huge plates, but I'm beginning to just accept it as it is. And it helps motivate me to work harder and get some bigger plates on there myself lol.



Stats

Age: 23
Height: 5'3
Weight: ~133lbs

[Katy47]

Today's (6am!!!) workout was upper power.

Bench press
1x5 25kg
3x5 27.5kg
New 5RM which I'm pretty happy about. I'm so scared to increase weight on my bench in case I drop it on my face, so it doesn't improve that often.

Incline DB bench press
4x10 7kg
I'm never sure if I'm doing this right, I feel it more in the shoulders than the chest. I keep watching youtube videos but just not sure, I might end up having to film myself to have a proper look at what's going on.

Bent over row
4x5 27.5kg
Took me a long time to grasp the technique of this but I've got it now Confident to increase weight to 30kg next time - didn't really struggle with it.

Lat pull down machine
I have no idea what weights these are, I just go by the numbers on the machine
2x10 no.4
1x8 1x6 no.5
Getting stronger, no.4 feels too easy now so will stick with no.5 for all sets until I can get my full 10 reps

Tricep dip machine
3x10 30kg
Didn't feel great on these today, I've done 35kg in the past but struggled with the last set today

I skipped overhead press and barbell curls because I ran out of time, and also because I hate them lol. I've got some weights at home so I miiiiight do them after work.

[Katy47]

Currently eating at 1300cals a day - 55g fat, 110g protein minimums - to trim down a bit for my holiday in July, after which I'll re-evaluate but probably put my calories up to try and get my lifts a bit stronger.

[johnnydeep1]

After half-assing the gym for about 2 years, 6 months ago I decided to just get over myself and the fear of free weights/not knowing what to do/gym bros. So I started off with the Stronglifts workout plan (at about 10kg for each lift/20kg for deads), and got some pretty good results sticking to the plan consistently.

This started to get boring, so recently I switched a Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower plan I found a link to somewhere on these forums. However, I'm finding the longer workouts and extra day a week a bit challenging to stick to, so I thought I'd make a journal thread for some accountability and possibly advice if any of you had any to throw at me.

I'm still nearly always the only girl in the gym, and I still find it pretty intimidating putting tiny plates on my bar when there's massive guys around me with like 6 huge plates, but I'm beginning to just accept it as it is. And it helps motivate me to work harder and get some bigger plates on there myself lol.



Stats

Age: 23
Height: 5'3
Weight: ~133lbs

cool

[TheFuarkingBoss]

That’s fairly low?

[Katy47]

That’s fairly low?

What is?

[mavd]

Hello! I just finished up 12 weeks of PHUL (and have done two 12 week cycles of it previously, too). It is one of my absolute favorite workouts. Because we're woman and are genetically superior in every way, we can get away with less rest. You may want to start timing your rest periods (90-120 sec on the heaviest sets, 60 sec on the higher rep sets does well for me) to decrease gym time. Also, I tend to superset opposing movements on lighter sets (so, on U/P day I would superset incline bench and lat pull, and then bicep and tricep). With those two alterations, I can keep the workout length around 40-50 minutes.

And screw fearing judgement from guys and their big plates. 9 times out of 10 they're using crap form anyway.

[TrinnieBuu]

What is?

Your calories. I’m 100 lb and even I cut on 1300 kcal a day (and that’s already a pretty steep cut for my amount of lean mass). You don’t want to lose weight too quickly as that’s how you also lose muscle mass.

[Katy47]

Hello! I just finished up 12 weeks of PHUL (and have done two 12 week cycles of it previously, too). It is one of my absolute favorite workouts. Because we're woman and are genetically superior in every way, we can get away with less rest. You may want to start timing your rest periods (90-120 sec on the heaviest sets, 60 sec on the higher rep sets does well for me) to decrease gym time. Also, I tend to superset opposing movements on lighter sets (so, on U/P day I would superset incline bench and lat pull, and then bicep and tricep). With those two alterations, I can keep the workout length around 40-50 minutes.

And screw fearing judgement from guys and their big plates. 9 times out of 10 they're using crap form anyway.

I tend to rest for about 3 minutes between sets, I'll definitely try your suggestions and cut down rest time as well as supersetting - I'm always a bit wary of taking up too much space/equipment in the gym! Thank you

I do silently judge the guys that don't squat to parallel haha.

Your calories. I’m 100 lb and even I cut on 1300 kcal a day (and that’s already a pretty steep cut for my amount of lean mass). You don’t want to lose weight too quickly as that’s how you also lose muscle mass.

Thanks for the comparison, my TDEE is about 1700-1800 using calculators, so I figured dropping 400-500 would be a good place to be for fat loss. I'll play around with increasing to 1400-1500 I'm pretty sure my fat/protein targets are okay tho? So I can take the extra calories in carbs... yay garlic bread again!!!